Hello everyone.

Last weekend (6/4/08) I took part in the 32nd Saga Prefecture Karate Championship Tournament. This was one of the toughest tournaments I have ever entered. When people fight, they fight hard. I had to really think and fight intelligently to be able to get anywhere because Japanese karate fighters are trained to be incredibly fast and pull punches back incredibly fast.

Kata: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PIfabHK7jZ0
The first section was the Kata. I performed Chinto which I had not practiced for quite some time. I was happy with the kata but it needed work and the guy that went next definitely deserved to win.

Kumite Round 1http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-whtHxr8o-c
This video is unfortunately incomplete (there were about another 4 minutes left in the match). My opponent was actually the guy that eliminated me in the first round last year so it was nice to get a bit of payback and do the same to him this year (not that I held a grudge, more that it was just good to see how much I have improved). After this fight I was absolutely exhausted but had to go on to the next round. (Please read my description on the video for more information)

Kumite Round 2 (no video)
Unfortunately for me the other people in this round all had no-show opponents so I had to change gloves and fight again with about a minute break. The guy that I fought had a very predictable style and always went for shots to the face. I let a few in to make sure that he kept doing them then proceeded to keep the pressure on by pushing him back to the edge of the ring then blitzing him until he caused himself to ring out. This strategy worked quite well for me (its something I often use when I am tired), and won the match for me. In this style of sparring, you get a warning on the first ring out, get a warning and give 1 point away on the second ring out, get a warning and give 2 points away on the third ring out, and so on and so on. His constant backing off meant that I managed to close an 8 point advantage and end the match. During the match however I damaged my knee and foot on my right leg and had to see the doctor. There was then a 30 minute break where I could recover a little and it was back to the fight.

Kumite Round 3http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=MBEgpaKvaf0
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=UoWW-E9IGNQ
So my foot was injured and it hurt to kick but at least I wasn't totally exhausted. This fight was exhilarating. There were a lot of heavy blows exchanged but it was a lot of fun. Since my leg was injured I didn't want to rely on kicking too much so I switched my style to the classic karate reverse punch. The guy I fought had a very high guard and didn't seem to learn that if he let me do a reverse punch, I would just get the points. I ended up winning the match but unfortunately (in the final exchange after my camera memory ran out), my opponent full on stamped on my injured foot. I was not in my happy place.

Kumite Round 4(no video)
This round was kind of interesting for me because my opponent was once someone that sat in my English classes. He had just graduated from the high school that I teach at where he was the captain of the karate team for 2 years. I had seen him fight before quite a few times and he generally won most of the tournaments he was in in high school. I got absolutely destroyed in this match and lost 8-0. I was happy to have been beaten by such a skilled martial artist with so much potential in the future. After the match the referee of the area I was fighting in insisted I saw the doctor again after the stamp in the 3rd round. Nothing broken but a lot of bruising so I should be ok again in no time.

Final Result
Ok so to round everything off. I lost the kata, and won 3 of the 4 matches I fought in. The final was in 2 matches so I think I did quite well (considering I was one of the few people in the room not wearing a black belt). The man that took the gold in the end was my friend Naoki who trains in the same dojo. He is currently studying sports science at a university in Tokyo and came back to represent the dojo. This is a great victory for the dojo and everyone did very well. I am sure that my Sensei would have been proud if he was still with us.

Ok, thank you for reading my lengthy post. If you have any comments please post them here or on my videos on youtube. Thanks again.

Tony

Hey guys,

Tony is a friend of mine from our old days at university. One of the most passionate martial artists ive ever had the pleasure of training with!!

Be sure to check out his videos on youtube!

Thats a recommendation and a half. Cheers mate.

Just to add to my previous comment, it was announced that due to my progress in the tournament, I am in the top 8 karate fighters in the prefecture. I'm pleased that a foreigner without a black belt (in karate) could make a bit of an impact on the tournament.